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Time to pay for podcasts

Are you ready to pay for podcasts? Audible hopes so, and they're moving into the pay-per-podcast world through a partnership with Ricky Gervais, creator (and star) of the BBC's original version of "The Office." Gervais produced 12 episodes of "The Ricky Gervais Show" podcast for UK newspaper The Guardian, which offered them as a free download. The show proved so popular, though, that it was recently snatched up by Audible, which plans to charge for the show's second season that begins on February 28.

Since podcasts are almost universally available free of charge, no one is quite sure how much they might be worth. Audible is guessing that people will pony up US$1.95 to hear Gervais' popular show, which is a half-hour of conversation between Gervais, his co-writer Stephen Merchant, and a dim-witted sidekick with a round head called Karl Pilkington. A subscription plan for the entire season will cost US$6.95 and will include at least four shows. The podcast has done quite well at iTunes, currently placing in the number four spot, and Audible has no plans to pull the show from Apple's music store—they're just going to raise the price. Consumers have generally been trained to believe that podcast content is cheap, so Audible is taking a bit of a risk with this strategy. As David Joseph, an Audible VP, puts it, "There will be a little bit of controversy because everybody wants something for free."

If the format change is successful, expect to see other popular podcasts attempt to monetize their shows once they become popular. One barrier to making money may be the popular RSS format, which is not currently designed to support authentication. This may make it harder for users to easily subscribe to and automatically download paid podcasts. Subscription information could be included in the URL, though for security reasons this would probably require the use of HTTP authentication and SSL, a move that would require updates to both the client software and the websites that host the content. For now, the simplest scheme is probably to partner with a third party like Audible, which handles all billing, subscription, and authentication issues.

The move is the latest indication that podcasts are going mainstream, though it does not mark the death of free shows. Many of these podcasts are created by amateurs as a labor of love and would have difficulty attracting a paying audience, while others remain free of charge by accepting advertisements or partnering with a firm that underwrites their expenses (as The Guardian originally did for Gervais). Clearly, podcasts are popular: Apple announced that it had collected more than one million podcast subscriptions in only two days once it began offering a podcast service last year as a part of iTunes, and everyone from NPR to the Lush Bimbo has gotten into the act. Why, even esteemed journal Nature offers podcasts now.

Podcasts are clearly more than a flash in the pan. Whether they are also destined to be money makers remains to be seen, but shows like Gervais' are a good place to begin the experiment.

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i dont think i would pay for a podcast, especially this one. sure its a hilarious podcast, but if im paying for it i expect a little more than three guys sitting around a table talking about things that dont concern anyone.

sure, if it was worth a damn and commercial-free, and if i listened to podcasts.

I mention this too often...

I miss not having a CMJ disc every month to expose me to new music that I wouldn't have downloaded based on a review or recommendation. So to answer your question, perhaps.


np: Menthol-s/t

KEXP has a free podcast that sends you a new song every day.
no commercials, no talking, no plugs . . . just a new song every day.

I doubt I'll be paying for this, even though the previous 12 episodes have benn hilarious. If they had started out charging for it then it would be a different story. But it's really hard to have to suddenly pay for something you've been getting free. And I don't even have time to hear all the free podcasts I receive, so it's not like I'm in dire need of stuff to listen to.

I've never downloaded a podcast, but if I found one I was interested in that provided value or benefit, of course I'd pay for it.

Y'all lie. You wouldn't pay for it. You'd download it from somewhere.

I pay for XM so I guess there's a possibility that I would pay for a podcast.

If I could get my shit together and do the damn thing, I'd hope that you fuckers would pay for MY podcast.

Yeah, and I have an e-subscription to Sound On Sound, so perhaps I might, as well.

Yeah, I stole cable for like 8 years and now pay about 110 bucks a month for cable and internets.....its weird what you are willing to pay for.

I haven't decided if I'm gonna pay for this or not...but I loved the first 12, so maybe

you fuckers WILL listen to my podcast.

even if its just to cringe and then later make fun of me.

I'll probably end up paying for that Ricky Gervais podcast. But if the price was much higher I probably wouldn't bother.

no, I don't think that I would pay for a podcast. There's too much good free content for me to ever get through . . . why would I want to go and pay for it? Do merchandising surrounding the podcast, t-shirts, coffee mugs, best-of cds . . . but leave the podcast free.

Would it be fair to compare this to Stern moving to Sirius? If it is a fair comparison, then $7 bucks a month is a rip-off.

[quote="Yail Blooryou fuckers WILL listen to my podcast.

even if its just to cringe and then later make fun of me.[/quote]

dude, just turn bingo night into a podcast

i love Gervais, but fuck no.

why should i pay for a podcast that he was previously free? fuck that, and fuck Audible.

and $6.95 for 4 shows? bwahahahaha. right. i'll download them elsewhere for free thank you.

It's hard enough keeping the audience you already have, asking to pay for it, they'll just drop you and find something else.

Buy a t-shirt or some other crap to support the podcaster, I see nothing wrong with that.

i love the ricky podcast and would pay for it too....

funny shit...

I just paid for one of them because I thought it was gonna be that much for the entire season. I should really read this sort of shit before I buy stuff on itunes.

Nope, I would not pay for it. My guess is that Audible's going to find out real quick that most people feel the same way. The novelty of something like this will disappear the moment it requires a payment. It's amazing how greedy people can get when they find out something's popular. What they don't seem to realize is that part of the reason it's popular is because it's free. Throw in some ads, if that's what it takes, but don't ever charge for something like this. I can deal with ads.

And I love Ricky Gervais, but no, he's not getting any money from me for this.

I would pay for it if an artist I liked did one--such as the ATP projects that go on. Would love for Thurston Moore or ?uestlove to do one and dip into their respective vinyl collections.

if i didn't have these huge balls that make me a man
i'd pay for some bullshit i could get somewhere else for free